Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Celebrated at Locoyard in style!

Whoever said a model railway wasn’t fit for Royalty?! To prove that it is, a royal train is in service at Locoyard to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II!

A great deal of time was put into finding the right locomotive for the occasion and I’m sure many will be surprised that the chosen example wasn’t one of the top link express locomotives in the fleet, but a mixed traffic British Railways standard 3MT tank. So why was this chosen? Well, the prototype was built in 1952; the same year the Queen was Coronated. It’s interesting to think that when Elizabeth became Queen, not only was the UK still building steam engines, but it would for another 8 years – Evening Star, the final steam locomotive built by British Railways was built in 1960.

I do not own models of specific Royal Carriages, but I’m sure ma’am would be perfectly comfortable in a first class Pullman carriage (above). Note the route discs indicating the train’s royal passengers on the locomotive, shown clearly below on the standard 3Mt shortly before she was put into service.

No visit from the Queen would be complete without a flypast! This is courtesy of a (Corgi) Battle of Britain memorial flight’s spitfire mark XIX PM631 (below).

Don’t forget that on Tuesday, locoyard will be host to it’s very own Locoyardfest! Lots of model locomotives at the same place, it should be fun!